


The Wonderful Adventures Of The Campers Of Camp Half-Blood And How The Gods Kept Fucking Their Lives Over (WiP)

by Adrasthe



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Other, idk what im doing lol, its mostly a oc story lol, more of the riordanverse is gonna come later but that's a spoiler
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-15
Updated: 2020-07-25
Packaged: 2021-02-27 06:34:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,012
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22262686
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Adrasthe/pseuds/Adrasthe
Summary: I used to think prophecies were fun. Percy told me they weren't. I didn't believe him; I mean come on! How can saving the world and being celebrated as a hero be not fun?I was wrong, prophecies are awful and I hate them with all my might.There, happy I admitted it?Now buckle up, buddies, for today we're going to read the story of a complete disaster that may or may not have led to more disasters (you see, summer isn't over yet so I can't guarantee you there won't be anything worse happening before the end :)))))) fml).-Danae
Comments: 8
Kudos: 6





	1. Idc What You Say Malcom Those Were Totally Aliens -Danae-

**Author's Note:**

> Wow this took me forever to write? College be wild like that lol; anyways, I thought I'd take time to state that this is my first time using Archive Of Our Own and I have no clue if I'm doing this right, and also English isn't my first language, so there may be some dumb mistakes. Oh and, before I forget?
> 
> Liang Chhet (Toxic_Luck), Elvaid Ro'Leah (Toxic_Luck), Eris Huong (Nana), Suzy Bright (Sav) and Cream Lovelie (Psianer) are all characters belonging to my friends! The day I figure out how to link people here I'll link them :')

I’m going to burst your bubble now. It’s not because he’s saved the world twice that Percy is a better brother than anyone else. He still forgets his dirty clothes on the bathroom floor and leaves empty milk box in the fridge. (YES I KNOW IT’S YOU PERCY DON’T LIE TO MY FACE!) Yet, no matter all of his imperfections and his dumbness, I love my twin and I’d never trade him for anyone else.

Now that this is out of the way… I’m Danae Jackson, the forgotten twin. There’s not much to say about me, in all honesty, once you’ve heard about Percy’s story, you’ve sort of heard about mine. I arrived at camp when I was twelve, except I wasn’t the one that killed the minotaur (thanks broken ankle…), I wasn’t the one that got claimed during that summer either (thanks dad, I loved waiting until my sixteenth anniversary to be told that I had the same dad as my twin brother, it was quite the shocking reveal, _truly_ ), nor did I save mom from Hell (thanks stupid prophecy of my butt), nor did I bring back the golden fleece the year after (Thanks for ditching me in favor of your new found friend Percy, that was really nice of you, I totally wouldn’t have been useful in this sort of quest)… or held up the sky the next one (thanks Champlain’s alternative school for troubled kids, I totally wanted to spend 8 months being bored there before blowing up the library instead of saving Artemis with my brother) … or got yeeted off to Ogygia during my third one (you know what? That “thanks” isn’t sarcasm, I don’t think I could have handled the time he spent trapped there…) … nor did I ultimately defeated Kronos (blame that on the five minutes gap between Percy and me, I totally should have been the older twin, have you seen how irresponsible he can be?!).

Ok, I’m going to take a deep breath, there’s not point in getting salty over this, the past is in the past… Though I’ll be honest here and say that when Hera decided to kidnap Percy less than a year after, I wasn’t quite happy about it; especially when he got sent to Europe to save the gods’ asses again, but what could I do? Sometimes, when you’re a demigod, you have to learn to step down and let the gods do their own bs… Oh well, at least he said no to Apollo when he came knocking on our door.

So, with all of that said… I should probably get started on the actual story: the one of my prophecy… or at least a prophecy that included me, for once…

It all started… well, now that I think about it… I’m not quite sure when it did. Was it the day Liang arrived at camp? It must have been about two years ago now. A satyr showed up with a fourteen years old them; apparently they had been wandering around the wild for almost four years now, barely scraping by, chased down by monsters from Canada. It is only thanks to Aphrodite that Hikaru did find them; I guess their mom did not want to lose a kid again… About a week later she claimed them into the tenth cabin and they more or less settled down with their siblings. I have to admit… I never really took time to hang around them before… _that_. I just… didn’t see the point? They were a camper like any other, an Aphrodite at that, I didn’t have time to lose talking about makeup and dumb stuff like that. Honestly, I really missed something there…

Though… was it really with Liang’s arrival that it started? Maybe it was more about Elvaid’s… The poor guy showed up covered in blood, sobbing. His dad… Mister D., he claimed him right on spot. Right after that, the new camper went to hide in the twelfth cabin and refused to leave for days. According to Pollux and Cecil, he barely ate, slept or drank anything, it reached a point where his father himself had to go inside and talk to him. After that, he started to show himself some more… What a ball of energy, honestly. He is always jumping around everywhere, setting things on fire… Gods… he does that so much, he is going to turn me friggin insane! I think he has showed up so much in his dad’s office that he has been permanently tasked with washing the dishes after dinner… Still, I wouldn’t trade him for anyone else; Percy can say what he want about Grover, he ain’t got nothing compared to Elvaid.

Maybe… maybe it could all have been about Suzy’s arrival. She never really told us much about it, frankly, she showed up one day, about four months ago, during winter. I wasn’t there at that time, but the others said she was dirty, tired, weird looking… even her satyr admitted she had some strange aura. Hermes claimed her but… she never really fitted anywhere. Everyone found her weird, strange, they felt as if she didn’t belong there. They just pushed her in her corner and left her there… it got even worse when she showed magic, because, you know, Hermes’ kids don’t do magic. That’s a thing for the Hecates. When I arrived for summer, there were rumors going around, gossiping too, I guess that’s what got me curious? She’s far from as bad as everyone made it sound like and… I like to think that, with Cream and some of the others, we managed to get her out of her shell… Yeah… now that I think about it, it’s really with her that it all started… and with Delia’s arrival, we should have known that something was going on for good.

~•~

“Hoe don't do it”

It was a rather quiet morning at camp, for once, most of the campers still had yet to arrive and nothing was truly planned yet, so the two of us had decided to do, well, nothing until our doing nothing ended up with us fooling around in the arts and crafts. By that point in time, I was mindlessly playing with clay, poorly attempting to shape it into a fish.

Elvaid glanced at me, holding a fistful of flour in one hand and yet another lighter in his other one. 

“ _Hoe, do it._ ”

And with that, he threw the flour on the flame like the dumbass he was.

If this would have usually created a cool, dramatic effect (the kind of effects this drama queen just loves), he apparently didn't think about the fact that he was holding the lighter in his hand and would most likely catch on fire too as half of the flour fell on him. _Genius_.

As I screeched (a type of scream I had came to master since I had met Elvaid), his shirt caught on fire and he flailed his arms about, poorly attempting to put the flames out.

“FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!”

“WATER! WE NEED WATER!” I, _very calmly_ , mind you, screamed.

The “No Shit Sherlock” look Elvaid gave me in that moment would have put Martin Freeman’s John Watson to shame. Quickly, the two of us scrambled to the door in direction of the nearby canoe lake, screaming the entire time, as one often does in such a stressful situation. Of course, we did gather a lot of attention on our way there, but most campers were used to this sort of thing taking place almost daily and didn’t pay more attention once we had left their general area, shrugging this off as _Just Elvaid and Danae Things™_.

Of course, being a bit (read _a lot_ ) taller than me, Wine boy easily reached the lake before I did and got promptly tackled into the sand by Cream, our local friendly satyr (not to say that the other satyrs aren’t friendly, it’s just that Cream is the friendliest one ever), to put out the flames. However… I didn’t actually notice that when I arrived on the scene and, being on edge as I was… I promptly dunked half of the lake on the duo, earning a a glare from the duo.

“I WAS NOT SMOLDERING ANYMORE, THANK YOU VERY MUCH!” Elvaid loudly complained, still crushed under the satyr.

“It’s not as if I had a way to know!” I defended, crossing my arms as Cream stood up and offered a hand to my friend.

“Oh well, at least the fire is out for sure now.” chuckled our furry friend.

Instead of taking the hand, Elvaid stared at it for a few seconds before he let out some sort of whine, rolling away on the sand.

“The fuck you think you’re doing, get up.” I sighed.

“Let me die on the cold hard ground,” he groaned, kicking his leg up. "Woah wo-ah!"

" _No_."

"No?" Cream gave us a confused look.

"Trouble! Trouble! Trouble!"

Elvaid… likes to sing. Kind of. Mostly at random for a joke or when he's reminded of lyrics. Most of the time (if not all), _it's bad_ , to say the least. And when I say bad, I mean it, it's not just me saying that to be mean to him; the literal sound of a squirrel screeching as it's being run over sounds way, _way_ better than his singing. _And he knows that._

“Oh my gods, please shut up.” 

“I’ve met goats with a better singing voice than you…” Cream mumbled.

“Thank you very much, do my best.” Elvaid winked before I promptly doused him in some more water. “Angelfish! Unfair!””

Rolling my eyes, I opened my mouth to add something when we heard shouts and a bunch of armed campers ran by us. We eyed each other, frowning as more campers joined the group.

“Something’s up?” I frowned, offering my hand to Elvaid.

“Oooh do I smell some mother frigging drama?” The Scot swatted my hand away, prefering to keep laying on the ground instead.

I stuck my tongue out to which he replied by doing the same.

“I hope not…” Cream mumbled.

Another camper ran by us and the satyr gripped them by their arm.

“Orion! What’s going on?”

“Peleus is making a fuss and apparently there’s monsters on the hill,” the son of Apollo replied, seething with impatience. “Can I go now?”

Cream nodded, concern crossing his eyes as Orion left.

“That’s not good… We should go check.”

“Yeah…” I nodded, eyeing my friend on the ground, “you comin’?”

Elvaid thumb-upped, finally standing up and dusting himself off.

“Let’s go.”

And with that, we followed the other campers. By the time we reached the top of the hill, a small crowd had already gathered around Thalia’s pine (well, I don’t know why we’re still calling “Thalia’s” since she’s not exactly in the pine anymore, but whatev, I guess we got attached to the name or something…) where the golden fleece hung. 

Wrapped around the trunk (as usual), Peleus was hissing at what seemed to be some sort of aliens (I would later learn said aliens were actually _aeternaes_ , thanks Malcom, for ruining my dream of having finally met aliens…) running after a young woman (or at least I hoped it was one… I wasn’t really in the mood to fight more monsters than we already were seemingly going to) who was desperately trying to reach the barrier.

“And now we’re fighting aliens… _fantastic_ ,” I grumbled under my breath, taking off my ring to turn it into a trident. “Hope you haven’t rusted during winter, Wine boy.”

Elvaid whined, holding one of the extra swords another campers had handed us upon arrival.

“Why can’t I get a bat for once…”

Shaking my head, I glanced around the small crowd. In total, we must have been about fifteen, maybe even twenty campers to face the three monsters and, while some demigods had brought more weapons with them than they needed, most of us were still unarmed and a charge with the entire group would have only been dangerous for everyone involved, especially with the archers (far from me the idea of doubting the apollos’ skills but… I almost got shot once by a distracted member of their cabin and I would rather not relive the experience thank you very much). Beside… five to one felt a bit overkill.

I turned back to the woman and her aliens right in time to see her trip and one of the beasts lunge towards her. You know that feeling of quiet terror in horror movies when you see a character about to get killed and all you can do is watch in horror as it unfolds before your very eyes? Yeah, that's how I felt. She rolled on her right, successfully avoiding the creature's claw by a mere inch and then kicked it in the face. The _aeternae_ screeched, outraged by its prey's resistance. Before the monster got to attempt anything more, an arrow, closely followed by another one, flew from our group and impaled it through it's jaw, causing it to crumble in a pile of golden dust all over the woman.

Silence fell on our small assembly as the second arrow barely missed, our quietness only interrupted by an annoyed groan.

"Fuck off Taylor!"

Our group turned to Kayla, whom was already notting another arrow as she gave the _“you filthy bastard”_ look any sibling knows how to serve to an annoying brother that just did something incredibly annoying like, oh, I don’t know, kill stealing your monster (believe me, Percy did that one to me once and it fucking sucks), to her brother.

"Suck it up Knowles, you snooze, you lose,” Orion grinned, aiming for another monster. 

“Is that a challenge?”

“ _Yes._ ”

Without looking away from her brother nor batting an eye, Kayla shot one of the monsters, impaling it through what I can only assume to be the chest as it turned into monster dust. Still laying on her back, frozen in shock, the woman watched the scene unfold with horror. Someone from our group shouted, screaming at her to hurry up, which (thankfully, let's be real here) seemed to bring her back to reality, as she stumbled back on her feet. Thanks to the two siblings, only one monster was now left after her; sadly, however, it had proven much harder to kill; with its smaller stature and its surprisingly fast pace, it had no trouble avoiding most of the arrows. By the time it had almost caught up to the woman, the siblings had run out of arrows and barely managed to impale its arm.

"Stupid alien of my ass!" Orion groaned, as his sister finished shooting her last arrow. "What do we do?" 

And of course he turned to me, as if I knew any better. Spoiler alert: _I didn't_ . It's not because your brother spends his life running around doing quests and saving the world that you suddenly become an expert in leadership, _ya know…_ Hades, I'd even say the contrary. Twirling my trident in my hand (you know how it is when you're nervous...), I sighed and glanced at the crowd.

"Elvaid, you're coming with me; we're going to take care of it while Cream helps her up," I turned to the satyr, who nodded, and then I gave a quick glance to Peleus, everyone's favourite local dragon, as he hissed loudly in the direction of the woman and her 'friend', "we don't want her to get eaten by our own dragon when we're trying to save her life. The others can cover, okay?"

The group nodded, no one daring challenging my orders (pros of being the sister of Percy the Great™) as my friends and I charged the duo with a scream. Of course, now that Elvaid and I had stepped outside of the magical border of the camp, our _absolutely fantastically tasty_ demigod fumes had alerted the alien, whom gave up on its apparently less appetizing prey to instead charge us back. _What a genius_ . As soon as it was within throwing range, I (well) threw my trident at the creature, aiming for its head. Of course. I had to miscalculate my shot and the trident fell to its left, leaving me defenseless. _What a fucking genius._ Of course, the demon spawn noticed that and went from “charging the two tasty half-bloods trying to kill me” to “charging the moron that threw her weapon away”.

Oh well… At least, if I were to die, it would have been in a heroic act and the woman would have been saved.

Or my best friend could just body slam the monster while screeching.

I guess.

 _Thanks for robbing my death of all its dignity, Wine boy._ (Jk jk, please don’t stop saving my dumbass when I need it, I don’t wanna die)

And then they started rolling down the hill. _Truly, everyone involved in this operation were geniuses of the highest calibre._ As I stared with disbelief at the rolling ball of entangled limbs, my ears were graced with a string of gaelic curses I don’t even want to attempt typing down (don’t look at me like that, Wine boy; I’m dyslexic and Word Q certainly isn’t about to be of any help for those) and the duo finished its slide at the bottom of the hill and, of course, Elvaid was the one under (what can I say, he really _is_ a bottom). Pinning him down under its weight (I swear to Zeus, if any of you idiots start shipping the two I’m going to cry), the aeternae slashed at his face, barely giving the demigod the time to raise an arm to protect himself.

_Now that wasn’t good._

In a fraction of seconds, his arm was already deeply cut and bleeding heavily, the scarlet liquid dripping onto his face. Who knew how long Elvaid had left until his muscle would be reduced to shreds and he wouldn’t be able to protect his face anymore? There was no way he would survive this.

My look went from disbelief to horror and finally to panic, and that’s when I found myself running downhill, unharmed, forgetting entirely about why we were out there in the first place anyways.

“ELVAID!”

Before I got the time to reach them, Elvaid’s arm fell limply and the _aeternae_ screamed in victory, plunging on his face with its monstrous mouth wide open. Except it didn’t take into account how smart my friend truly was, because you see, dear reader, Elvaid might not look like it, but he’s a freaking genius despite all the stupid things he does all the time. As some would say… _high intelligence, low wisdom_. Unlike my glorious self, he hadn’t dropped his sword in the fight and had instead managed to position it upward, the handle pressed against his chest as he protected his face with his other arm. By the time he couldn’t do this anymore, he had let the creature lean in to bite his face off… and promptly impale itself on the sword by the same occasion.

As its front teeth brushed against Elvaid’s vitiligo marked cheek, the last _aeternae_ turned into golden monster dust and I stopped beside my wounded friend, my heart thumping loudly in my ears. Save for his arm, he looked largely unscathed, his green eyes shining with a mix of pride and excitement as he stared up at me, panting slightly.

“Oh. My. Gods. Are you okay?!” I knelt by his side, trying to ignore the damage done to his limb.

Elvaid’s eyes scanned my face for a few seconds, smile widening into a grin. “Hey, hey, hey, _did you see that?_ ”

I nodded with a sigh, shoulders slumping with relief. _He didn’t seem too hurt._

“ _I killed it!_ _By myself!_ ”

A small smile reached my lips at how happy he seemed. _Gods damn it, why did he have to be so adorable?!_ I gently took his wounded arm to fold it over his chest before he’d _somehow_ (I mean come on, we’re talking about Elvaid here, he bounces around so much he definitely would find a way to) managed to make it worse, and then helped him sit up.

"I’m going to try to make a shitty splint for your arm with your shirt.” I warned him, already lifting up the back of his shirt to pull it over his shoulder and knot it.

“Well Angelfish… I didn’t know you wanted to see me shirtless so bad.”

I stopped to glare at him.

“ _Elvaid Ro’Leah, you’re lucky I’m worried to death about your stupid ass face or else I would have slapped you right then and there for this stupid joke do you get me?_ ”

“ _Yes, Ma’m._ ”

As I rolled my eyes, making sure to secure his arm properly, someone on top of the hill yelped and we heard a loud definitely-british-sounding-curse, glancing at Elvaid, I turned to the hill, frowning.

“PELEUS STOP THAT YOU STUPID DRAGON OF MY ARSE!” 

_Well it looked like Orion was having a wonderful time with Peleus, didn’t it?_ Cream and the stranger had reached the top of the hill and the dragon had immediately started attacking her (or at least tried to), hissing at her general direction as he threw a fit worthy of Mystic bitch herself. How fitting it was to find Orion trying to stop him… Of course, simply getting the newcomer past him would have been too easy of a solution and the barrier seemed to actively be rejecting her… which meant she had an angry dragon snapping his jaws mere centimeter from her face. _Truly a lovely sight._

I turned back to Elvaid, finishing off his shitty(™) splint as quickly as I could.

“Weird… Do you think she’s a monster too?”

He shrugged, grimacing, “they can be _that_ small?”

“Stymphale birds. Do you even listen to Chiron?”

“Uh-”

“That’s what I thought…” I sighed, standing up to help him on his feet. “Monsters are like… the worse. Whenever you think you can finally take a breather and relax, they find a way to fuck it all up by popping somewhere and blowing up the library for a third time this week.”

“F,” he nodded, as we started to make our way back up.

By the time we reached the others, Cream was now standing in between Peleus and the girl, speaking calmly to the dragon as Orion and Kayla were trying to pull her in. _Judging by their loud cussing, it was not going well._ With each new pull, she'd hit the invisible wall and yelp, angering the beast despite Cream's best attempts at soothing him. Elvaid and I exchanged a look as we stopped beside the others, panting slightly.

"Looks like someone's been too naughty to be allowed in Hell," my friend mumbled under his breath.

"LET! HER! IN!" Kayla groaned, pulling with each word. “COME ON!”

"Maybe if we just-"

With a last tug from the siblings, the barrier cracked loudly and the woman simply collapsed on the other side with a small cry. _Nailed it._

"You know what? Never mind…" I muttered, as we gathered around.

Silence quickly fell over the small assembly and we finally got a chance to look at the stranger properly. She was small and petite, so much that a single glance could easily lead to believe one was facing a rather tall child; short blond locks were spread around her face as she laid unconscious on the ground. Despite her dirty chiton covering most of her body, horrendous scars could be seen creeping up her arms and snaking down her legs, as if she had been branded a long time ago. It looked bad, it looked disgusting, it looked painful. I grabbed Elvaid's hand and squeezed it tightly, owning a glance as he pulled me a little closer and, frankly, I felt grateful. (He’s actually pretty calming, okay? Let me be!)

“So… what do we do now?” Kayla muttered under her breath. 

As everyone was turning back to me for guidance (seriously, yalls need to stop that, it’s not because Percy can pretend to be competent that I can too, cut it out with your expectations!) we heard the sound of hooves trotting up half-blood hill. I guess we could say I was… _saved by the hooves._ As Chiron reached out little group, we moved aside to make him some place and allow him a glance at the whole mess.

If we were honestly expecting him to make one of his usual speeches or lecture us about running out to fight monsters without warning him, local centaur dad merely sighed.

“Bring her to the infirmary. Make sure you take care of her wounds and do not, under any circumstances give her nectar or ambrosia,” he glanced up at the apollos, “understood?”

The siblings shared a look, nodding, and Orion carefully picked the stranger up, leaving along with his sister. Once they had vanished from our sights, Chiron looked at our group, as if taking note of everyone who was there.

“Please go back to what you were doing. This incident is nothing to worry about, Delia should be fine.”

“Delia?” I frowned. “That’s her name? Who’s she?”

“Someone who should be dead.”


	2. Aquired: One (1) Mum -Orion-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cassiopeia Eastwood belongs to FizzyHedgehog, whom I want to thank dearly for helping me write her properly! Half of her dialogues were done by her, actually! Anyhow, like last time, I still have no fucking clue how to link people so uh yeah, the day I figure out how to do it I will :' )

My name’s Orion Taylor and I hate my dad. Now that this is out of the way and, since I apparently am not important enough to get my own paragraph, _let’s get back to the story._

As soon as we arrived inside the infirmary, I set the stranger on a cot and put some water to boil while I took care of her wounds, trying to push my questions to the back of my mind. Who was she? How did she get here? Was she a demigod? Then why did the barrier push her away? Could she be a monster? A god? _Something else?_ Either way… from the looks of her burn, there was no way she could just be “mortal”. 

_It would have killed her._

“Is there anything I can do or…” Kayla trailed off, standing behind as to not get in my way.

“I’ll be good.”

“Certain?”

“I know how to take care of some burns, don’t worry, Kay. You can go tell Chiron she’s been taken care of.”

“Alright…” she nodded, walking to the door. “I’ll tell Will what happened when he arrives?”

“Yeah,” I bit the inside of my cheek as she turned around to leave, adding a thanks.

Now… back to my patient. Once I was done applying balm to all of her burns, I started wrapping them up with clean bandages, the silence of the infirmary only broken when the kettle finally whistled loudly, startling me out of my thoughts.

“Give me a minute…” I said to the thing, finishing the current bandage as quickly as I could.

“Can’t I just talk to you while you’re doing this?” 

Frowning, I turned around to find my little sister -well, more like _half-sister_ , but to me it honestly didn’t matter-, Cassiopeia, awkwardly standing in the doorframe. Her small -or at least small compared to mine- frame seemed to be hovering in between the interior of the infirmary and the exterior, as if she couldn’t decide where she wanted to be. Tilting my head, I gave her a mildly worried look.

“Please don’t tell me you got some glass in your foot again…”

She shook her head, lightly tapping the tip of her toes -as usual, she had decided that going around barefoot was a smart idea…- on the floor.

“Then why on Earth are you here?!”

She looked down, “dream…”

“Dream?”

Cassiopeia nodded quietly, looking back up to me with worried eyes, as if she was expecting me to faint right then and there or cough up blood or something. Biting the inside of her cheek hard enough for me to notice, she walked in to press the back of her hand against my forehead.

“Do you feel sick or anything? Not too… warm or… cold… or like you're about to die?”

“What…” I pushed her hand away, “what are you going on about? I’m blinding!”

My sister gave me an unconvinced look, starting to pace around as I -finally- unplugged the still whistling kettle.

“Herbal tea?” I offered, to which she simply shook her head.

“I saw you in the infirmary and you looked- almost dead! I was just- standing there and I couldn’t do anything and dad was losing his mind and everyone was- dying!”

I arched an eyebrow, serving myself a cup.

“It’s just a dream, Cass… Sun cunt would never be here. _Problem solved_.”

“Don’t- call him that…”

“I’m not about to call him dad.”

She huffed, crossing her arms.

"I don't want a repeat of the last three summers…" she muttered. "Michael… Lee… I already lost too many brothers, I don't want to lose you too." 

That's about when I decided to chug down the warm liquid, prefering to burn my tongue instead of saying anything about Sun cunt's responsibility in that.

" _Sure_."

My sister huffed, fidgeting with her necklace.

"Why can't you just believe me for once…"

"..." 

Was I a bad brother for not wanting to believe we'd have problems again? For pretending things would be normal this time around? Or maybe it's more because I was dismissing what Cassi was saying again. In hindsight, I should have believed her before she did a dad…

She glanced at the door nervously.

"Hey… I'm proud you came in here, you know?"

"What?" She gave me a confused look.

"I'm proud you came into the infirmary to tell me. I know what it does to you. Takes a lot of courage to do it and-"

"Who… are you?"

Surprised by the sudden eruption of a third voice, Cassiopeia and I whirled around to the cot, assuming it came from our current patient… which it did. Sat up on the bed, our unknown stranger was giving us a slightly confused look -the kind we usually get with new campers that fainted upon arrival-, mindlessly playing with the only bandage I had time to do yet. I exchanged a glance with my sister and she took a step towards the woman, smiling brightly.

"Hiiiii!”

The woman gave her a confused look, “h-hi?”

“That looks bad, are you okay?” Cassiopeia went on to ask, pointing at one of the stranger’s burns like randomly asking her about a potentially traumatic event wouldn't be a bad thing to do. 

The woman opened her mouth to reply. However...

“It’s okay!” my sister continued, not giving her any time to answer. “Because Orion is the best at this!”

I gave a look to Cassi, doing a ‘cut it’ hand motion before she managed to get the stranger’s expectations too high, to which she simply gave me an innocent smile. _She knew exactly what she was doing, that brat…_ I huffed quietly, crossing my arms. At least she had forgotten all of her previous worries.

“Orion?” the woman asked in a confused voice. 

Before I could even answer, Cassiopeia started talking again. 

“Yeah! He’s my brother, and I like to call him Ori but that’s just me. Nicknames are fun. Though I still can’t think of one for Will, since Will is so short and-” she stopped for a millisecond and gasped. “You can help me come up with one maybe! Right?” The poor woman clearly grew more confused at that, but, yet again, Cassiopeia didn’t wait for an answer. “Oh yeah, you don’t even know Will, do you? I think he’s asleep. But maybe not, it’s not important, you’ll meet him soon probably! He comes in here a lot, probably because he’s a doctor. Wait-” she said, as if someone was talking other than her -I think both of us had given up the idea of doing so by that point though-. “If you’re here you’re probably a demigod right?! Hmm, you’re pretty, you’re probably a daughter of Aphrodite. Wait, but...you’re an adult. Oh my gods an adult demigod!” She practically screeched, clapping her hands together once with a ginormous grin on her face. 

“Cassi- Cassi take a breath you’re going to scare the lass!”

I glanced back at her -the woman, I mean- and, sure enough, she was giving my sister an absolutely confused, definitely slightly worried look, eyes as big as saucers. She opened her mouth, only to immediately close it, as if her brain couldn’t process half of the information she had been bombarded with in the past minute or so.

“E-excuse I- I must admit I have not yet mastered your tongue…” she muttered, and I noticed for the first time how English felt foreign on her tongue, as if she was twisting it in a way that wasn’t at all natural for her to speak.

“Oh, oh my gods I’m so sorry! I just get excited sometimes, and I’m thinking about a lot of things at once when I’m not even good at thinking of _one_ thing at once-” she stopped with a giggle before looking at me expectantly.

 _She looked like a child with that look on her face._ I cleared my throat, holding out my hand for a shake.

“I’m Orion and… this is Cassiopeia,” I gave a nod towards my sister.

The woman stared at my hand, before looking up to me, the confusion on her face still very much present.

“Orion? I thought you were… dead.”

“ _What._ ”

Cassiopeia let out a small whine at that, seemingly reminded of her dream for a few seconds before her smile indicated her mind had wandered again.

“I’m _fine_.” I huffed quietly, before looking back to the woman, “and very much not dead. You’re… probably thinking of the Orion that was killed by my dad. My name’s Orion Taylor, not… Orion Whatever-his-name-was.”

“Your… dad? Apollo is- he-” Her eyes filled with a strange look, some mix of longing, sadness and regret as she pronounced _his_ name.

“He’s my dad too!” Cassiopeia interrupted. 

I rolled my eyes at her addition. _Of course she’d be proud of it…_

“Same dad,” she clarified, pointing between her and me as if that needed to be reiterated.

"Both of you?" The woman glanced between us. "You… do share his eyes…" she muttered.

"Oh my gods, you know him?!" Cassiopeia bounced slightly, "how is he? Has he been better since… _you know…_ He said he’d come a lot more but he hasn’t been here in a while either though I guess a month isn’t really what most people call ‘a while’ too and gods have like-”

“He’s not here because he’s a cunt.”

The two girls looked at me, my sister with the same old look she’d give me whenever I said anything about Sun dick, the stranger with slightly horrified, mostly disappointed motherly look, closer to the one mum would give to me than anything else. _I felt bad for what I said._

“Sorry…” I mumbled, looking away, but the woman shook her head.

“It is not to me that you should apologise and… I have met more than enough hero to know that such feelings often have their reasons for existing.”

I gave her a slightly surprised look; she _was_ the first adult I had met that didn’t actually try to shame me for saying or feeling that. It was refreshing.

“And…” she added, “I have known Apollo for long enough to be well aware that he tends to rub people in the wrong way a lot more than he actually means to… and he _has_ a rather terrible way of showing his affection towards most people, especially his own children.”

“You make it sound like you’ve known him forever?” Cassiopeia tilted her head.

She wasn’t wrong…

“I… should probably present myself first and then explain myself, shouldn’t I?”

We both nodded in response.

“My name is Delia. I am no hero, as either of you are, but rather a simple mortal gifted with sight.”

“A mortal?!”

I elbowed my sister.

“Don’t be rude!”

“I’m not!”

“You _are!_ ”

She stuck her tongue out to me and I did the same, elbowing her again. The woman, Delia, chuckled, putting a hand over her mouth like a proper lady in a nineteenth century story.

“Children! No need to fight over such a trivial thing. It _is_ rather uncommon and, as far as I have heard, only heroes are usually able to enter this sanctuary, so to have a mortal like me do so…”

Cassiopeia was about to go on another question tirade, but I covered her mouth with my hand, cutting it short. We’d never be able to get anywhere if she kept doing this.

“How do you know about the gods? And camp?”

“Any Hellen knows about the gods. I was raised in their worship and Apollo made me his herald. How would I _not_ know?”

“You’re an _Hellen?!_ Like… Ancient one?!” Cassi squeaked from behind my hand. “Are you immortal?! Or-” her voice dropped a few decibels as she whispered loudly, “are you undead?!”

Delia chuckled again.

“One may say so. I was dragged out of the Underworld by a monster and… I received helped finding my way to a safer place, I suppose…”

“Dragged out by a monster?” I frowned.

“Or at least what I suppose to be one… they had… a strange aura to them.”

“They?”

“You say this like if it was a person,” my sister took a step back from my hand to free her mouth -it’s a very Cassi thing to do, making it more complicated than it needs to be just _because.-_

“Well… they both looked like one…” she carefully said. “I would have… thought them mortals if hadn’t been for the way the other spirits seemed… repelled by them.”

“Repelled?” Cassi frowned.

In hindsight… now that I know Delia better, I shouldn’t have been that frustrated at her vagueness. She’s just… like that. Mum -that’s how we’ve nicknamed her- is always super careful about the things she says on everyone. I think it’s because of the way she was raised. The priests didn’t want her out of her line. So… she never really says anything that could be seen as her critiquing someone or something. It’s always a supposition or something like that.

But… at that point in time, I was lacking hindsight. And a lot of other things, _but we don’t talk about those._ The way she was being so vague and careful about everything was getting me riled up. _I wanted to know what she was going on about._ If someone was starting to drag people out again, did it mean the Gates of Death were open? Did it mean some other godly horror or entity older than the universe was out there to get us again? I needed an answer.

“Could you fucking stop running around in circle?!” I cut Delia off with a huff before she even had time to reply.

“Ori!”

I rolled my eyes at my sister’s exclamation, crossing my arms, waiting for a reply.

Delia didn’t say anything though. I think she was stunned into silence. It was fair. I don’t know what I expected. She was new to this entire place, to this entire era, even. She had no idea what was going on, who we were, what we wanted or even what had happened to her. It was clear in her face. And now, this grumpy teen way too tall compared to her was yelling. I gave her a look and it seemed as if she was trying to shrink down on herself.

I felt bad.

“Sorry…”

“No… no it is alright. I should have been straight to the point, I suppose. We have all heard the rumours of what demigods here faced in the last years…” she spoke softly. “It is normal for you to be worried about what may be happening.”

I bit the inside of my cheek, shaking my head. This woman was weird. Everyone else would have been angry or… scared. She just looked… sad. Kind of like when we said Apollo was our dad. I wondered what kind of relationship these two really had.

“I, sadly, cannot give you more information on the people that took me away. I do not hold more information on them, since I managed to free myself and flee not too long after we had left the Underworld. Had I thought of the importance their identity may hold, I would have stayed longer but…”

She sighed softly, looking down to her burnt hands. Delia didn’t say it but… I knew why she had left. She was terrified of them. I wondered if there might not be a link between her strangely old yet fresh wounds and this.

“Don’t sweat it-” she gave me a confused look. “It means ‘don’t worry about it’. You couldn’t have known.” _And something was telling me she wouldn’t have make it to safety._

Delia nodded slowly and we all fell silent. _Or at least that’s what I thought was going to happen._

“So you know dad?” Cassiopeia piped up, as soon as no one had said a thing for longer than a second.

Groaning under my breath, I took my first gulp of my tea, mourning its already gone warmth. I turned the kettle on again, leaving the girls to their talk.

“Yes… As I said, I grew up on Delos and became his herald.”

“So gods used to have heralds?”

Delia shook her head.

“Not exactly. Usually, your father would have had oracles, like the Pythia, but… I do not believe he was given much choice on the matter.”

“Anyone is going to want tea?” I asked.

“Didn’t you _just_ make some?” Cassi frowned.

“It’s cold.”

“Tea?” Delia mumbled.

Poor woman didn’t seem to have the smallest clue of what it was.

“Leaf water,” my sister elegantly explained.

“I… would not mind tasting it?”

“Finally someone of taste!” I cracked a smile.

“ _Ew._ ”

I laughed and Delia joined me with that mother like chuckle of hers.

“Can we go back to talking about _interesting_ things?” Cassiopeia whined.

“Like Sun d-” I glanced at Delia, “dude? _Ew_.”

My sister stuck her tongue out.

“I wanna know how they met!”

“She told y-”

“He ate a rock in front of me.”

Cassiopeia and I turned to Delia, giving her a most definitely confused look.

“He ate _what._ ”

The Hellen had a proud smile. Clearly, she had been waiting to say this.

“I was eight and demanded proof of his godly hood… or rather, that he was as strong as he was pretending to be. Did you know that gods tend to adapt mentally as much as they do physically? So physically presenting as an eight years old meant for him he would also have the maturity of one. And when I said ‘strong men eat rocks’…”

“OH MY GODS! HE ATE A ROCK!”

Delia burst out laughing, delighted by the looks on our faces and we soon both joined in, laughing until our ribs hurt. I kinda wish it would have lasted longer.

"I am _so_ using that against him!" Cassiopeia giggled.

The door swung open around that time, revealing and weirdly bloodied Danae.

"Oh my gods are you okay?!" My sister was the first one to run to her despite the fact that, out of the entire cabin and outside of _maybe_ Melody, she was the worse healer we had. "What happened?! Did you get injured in the fight?! Don't worry, Ori's going to-" _oh gods not again-_ "solve this is in no time!"

_Gods damn it._

"What- no! Wine Boy's bleeding all over the lake and I barely managed to clean his arm. I need ambrosia." Danae walked up to one of the cupboard to start looking for it. "Also I potentially need a way to explain to him that no, the bluefishes do not appreciate being called blueberries and would like him to kindly fuck off, but like, _nicely_. They're kind of a bunch of assholes…"

"Third one to your left," I told her, pointing it 

"Bluefishes are… _assholes…?_ " Delia frowned, confused.

"Oh _yeah_ , they're like the schoolyard bullies of Long Island," Danae glanced back to us as she moved to the cupboard I told her to check. "You're Delia, right?"

_How did she know?_

"I- uh- yes?"

"Chill. Chiron didn't think you'd be up right away like that." Danae grabbed the ambrosia. "I'm glad you look alright," she smiled.

" _You are the girl that threw her weapon to defend me, are you not?!_ "

I never thought I'd see a live version of the pikachu meme face in my life yet Danae managed to perfectly recapture its essence with the expression she had in that very instant.

"Is your lover alright?"

"The boy that defended you from the aeternae?"

I tried to choke back a laughter.

"W- N- He's- he's not- we're _friends?_ "

Double emphasis on _tried_ , because I failed really bad when I saw the look on her face.

" _Mhm_." I teased.

"Wine boy's not- he's just- _we're just friends!_ " Danae defended, glaring at me… which just made me laugh more.

"My apology for this misunderstanding, then... You seemed to care a lot about each other."

"He's my _best friend_ ," Danae's look for me hardened and I finally quieted down, slightly worried about my well being, "of course we do."

Delia nodded, "and he is…"

"Good," Danae lifted the ambrosia square she was holding to wave it around.

The kettled whistled and I unplugged it, filling up two cups.

"Don't give him too much," I muttered, adding the tea bags.

"I'm not an idiot…" She stuck her tongue out. "And if she's up and better, someone should probably go tell Chiron, because he's been quietly flipping his shit over this."

"She's not entirely bandaged," I pointed out, offering Delia a cup as I sat in the edge of her bed with my new one.

"I'll go while you finish!" Cassiopeia piped up, bouncing. "I need to see him anyways."

I gave her a questioning look and she shook her head. _Alright, keep your fucking secrets then._

"He's at the big house," Danae shrugged, making her way to the door. "'t'was nice meeting you, Delia."

"It was a pleasure to meet you too…"

"Danae," Cassiopeia whispered to her.

"Danae," Delia nodded.

And with a quick wave, she -Danae- left.

"Is there a fad with demigods' parents as of late?" Delia asked, staring at the door.

"A fad?" 

I out my cup on the bed stand and went back to bandaging her again.

"Orion, Cassiopeia, Danae… will the next person I meet be called Perseus?"

My sister and I glanced at each other, deciding to keep the surprise for later.

"Who knows…" Cassi shrugged. "I should go too, since Chiron's waiting and all."

We nodded as she made her way to the door.

"Don't cut yourself on a rock again," I warned her

"Don't poison Delia with your tea," she stuck her tongue out as she left too.

The Hellen glanced down to her cup.

"... it _is_ safe to drink... right?"

leasure to meet you too…"

"Danae," Cassiopeia whispered to her.

"Danae," Delia nodded.

And with a quick wave, she -Danae- left.

"Is there a fad with demigods' parents as of late?" Delia asked, staring at the door.

"A fad?" 

I out my cup on the bed stand and went back to bandaging her again.

"Orion, Cassiopeia, Danae… will the next person I meet be called Perseus?"

My sister and I glanced at each other, deciding to keep the surprise for later.

"Who knows…" Cassi shrugged. "I should go too, since Chiron's waiting and all."

We nodded as she made her way to the door.

"Don't cut yourself on a rock again," I warned her

"Don't poison Delia with your tea," she stuck her tongue out as she left too.

The Hellen glanced down to her cup.

"... it _is_ safe to drink... _right?_ "


End file.
